Keeping Secrets
by Epikoinos
Summary: Thom and Alan of Pirate's Swoop both have their secrets, but at least they can share them with each other. Written for an event on the forum Goldenlake.


Squire Alan of Pirate's Swoop gave a soft knock on the open door to his brother's small room at the Royal University. Thom looked up from his messy desk at the sound. Alan couldn't help but smile when he noticed that his brother wore his long, red hair in a ponytail perfectly modelled after Uncle Numy's.

"Oh, hello there, Al. Are you in love?" Thom said by way of greeting. The question was delivered completely without any affect.

Alan would have expected to be hear something like this (though said in a much more teasing manner) from his twin, but not from his older brother.

"Uh, what?" he replied eloquently.

"Aly mentioned once that you push your shoulders back and hold your head higher when you're in love," Thom explained. "Your shoulders are pushed back and your head high right now, ergo my query about your emotional state."

Alan self-consciously relaxed his shoulders as he slipped into the room and sat down on his brother's unmade bed. Thom drew up his chair to the bed, so that they sat facing each other. Alan felt a little uncomfortable under his brother's curious gaze.

"Well, to answer your question… yes. I_ am_ in love," he said. In a slightly worried voice he added "Do you think mother will be able to tell, with the shoulders and head and whatever?"

Thom made a vaguely sympathetic face.

"Ah, you still haven't spoken with her?"

"No." Alan winced at the thought.

Thom quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, who is the lucky fellow?" he asked.

"Well," Alan said with a sly smile, "you know how people say that 'the King's Own is the most honorable way of disposing of a bardash son'? It turns out that there is some truth to that…"

"Ooooh," Thom replied, "are you consorting with a _soldier of the Own_? And you just a squire at that."

Now even Thom's tone reminded Alan uncannily (and surprisingly!) of their sister. Thinking about Aly came, as always, with a sting of longing. Alan shook it off.

"Well, I'm much older than most squires," he replied with a grin.

Thom grinned back. Then he said something completely 'apropos nothing', as he was always wont to do.

"The Goldenlake colors suit you, by the way."

Alan glanced down on his green and yellow tunic. It was typical of Thom to digress into an observation about what someone was wearing – Alan sometimes thought that aesthetics and fashion were the only things his brother cared about other than magic and old, dusty scrolls. Luckily the latter two had won out, or Thom might have left the University when it became clear that he would have to wear boring grey apprentice robes.

Alan was much more keen on telling his brother about his new lover than he was on talking clothes, so he gently changed the subject back again.

"It's funny you should say that," he said with a smile, "because that's just what Tarnach said some days ago."

"Tarnach?" Thom said with genuine surprise in his voice. "As in Tarnach haMich?! Well, you certainly could do worse than a _Minchi_… Congratulations!"

Thom lent over to give his brother a rather awkward, seated hug. Alan appreciated the gesture more than the collarbone shoved into his throat.

"Does Raoul know?" Thom asked when they'd broken the embrace.

"Er…" Alan said. He hadn't even considered that question yet. "I'm not sure. I don't think so. Of course he knows that some of his men are, you know…"

"Bardashes," Thom supplied helpfully.

"…yes. Maybe he even knows about Tarnach. But I don't think he knows about, well… us. We're trying to be discreet and all, and the whole thing is still 'new and exciting', as they say. We've only…"

"Yeah, thanks," Thom interrupted, "that's quite enough for me to know about my brother's love life."

Alan grinned sheepishly at him.

"Sorry."

There was a short silence again. Then Thom seemed to swallow. There was something determined in his eyes.

"Ma will find out sooner or later, you know," he pointed out. "There'll be gossip at court, especially with a Minchi involved. I'm sure Ma'd rather hear it from you than…"

"Well, you're one to speak," Alan interrupted angrily, rising from the bed. In the close quarters of the room he towered over his sitting brother.

"There's _already _gossip about you!" Alan continued. "Rumour tells me that you are courting not just one but _two_ young ladies at the moment, one of which isn't even strictly speaking a lady…"

Thom looked away.

"You obviously don't intend to marry _both _of them," Alan went on, but he fell silent when he saw his brother's pained expression.

"I would if I could," Thom replied in a quiet voice.

Alan sank back down on the bed, all fight gone out of him. This silent was longer than all the others preceding it, with the brothers looking anywhere but at each other.

"They know about each other," Thom said, finally. "They're both fine with it. Cordeilla isn't even… well, never mind…"

Thom's voice trailed off, but this time the ensuing silence was a bit more comfortable. Then Thom spoke again.

"I guess we're both keeping secrets that'd upset Ma…" he said in a reconciliatory voice.

"It indeed seems so," Alan replied, putting his hand on Thom's knee in a comforting gesture. "But at least none of us have married a bird."

This remark startled a laugh out of Alan's older brother.


End file.
